IN 1988, five decades after Gertrude Stein said of her native Oakland, in vintage Steinspeak, ''There is no there, there,'' the city pointedly erected a sculpture named ''There'' in the heart of town. It was a symbolic act. Living in the shadow of...

THE corridor of Telegraph Avenue in Oakland known as the Temescal District used to be the go-to for an unlikely trio: Ethiopian food, paint and stamps. But since the late 1990s, an influx of young families and hipsters fleeing San Francisco's...

OAKLAND may never live down Gertrude Stein's claim that ''there's no there there.'' Actually, it still rings true, because both Oakland and its neighbor, Berkeley, are cities of diverse neighborhoods, any number of which can qualify as ''there.'' ...

By JOHN KRICH; JOHN KRICH is the author of ''Bump City: Winners and Losers in Oakland'' (City Miner Press)

LEAD: OAKLAND Saturday night: everyone's ready for partying, for motorized cruising down once gas-lighted avenues. From the MacArthur to the Nimitz, the old heroes have been turned into highways and the highways are free. So get in your bumper car...